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Into Jzadirune!We entered the underground city of Jzadirune that same night. I don’t know if everyone was as worried about invisible guards as I was. What had Keegan called them? “Skulks”? The perfect word for them. We didn’t delve too deeply before we realized we needed rest and supplies — Jzadirune is a full city underground. Once we’d rested and equipped, we headed down again. There were freshly made tunnels. Again, the Skulks were on our minds — I did not want to duck-walk through some tunnel only to be attacked by invisible creatures with wicked blades and I know I wasn’t alone in that thought.

There were huge circular doors with clever locks. We found a few keys. Too few. We all suffered in the underground city. Cinder was again savagely attacked by Skulks. Then she was paralyzed by a grell. Myntilly triggered a trap and fell 20 feet on to spikes. I was ambushed by Skulks and had to wrestle a Raggamuffin. Both my own silly fault, by the way. Sadi loosed many arrows in our defense and Ilea stalked ahead, as cat and human, alert for enemies.

I believe we were feeling too confident when we got to the theater room. We fanned out in the room. No sneak attacks, but no sign of children or Starbrow. Myntilly and Sadi noticed a trapdoor in the stage. Nature abhors a vacuum like we abhor a closed door! We opened the trapdoor. Myntilly was in front, Ilea behind, holding it open, Sadi was a few step back and to the side, Cinder was in the seating area with bow and arrow ready. I stood below the stage, near the stairs.

As soon as the lid lifted, several thick snake-like arms wriggled out. One grabbed Myntilly around the throat. Others slithered over her shoes, looking for a purchase. Ilea let the door drop, but that only made the tentacles around Myntilly’s throat close tighter. Cinder dropped her bow and sprang onto the stage with her dagger out. I felt useless with my mace. Myntilly, with Cinder’s help, managed to get free of the monster’s grip. Sadi suggested we light a stage curtain on fire and drop it into the trapdoor space — we would burn the tentacle creatures. It took coordination, but we did it!

We slept under the stage that night. We felt safe there. We were wrong. In the morning Cinder was half invisible.Thus ends part 3.